


A Ranting

by BottledTea



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: I Don't Even Know, I Have Terrible Writing orz, M/M, ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 12:26:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BottledTea/pseuds/BottledTea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve jerks awake at the prodding sensation at his head. His hands are tied behind him by some kind of thick rope; he pulls at it as hard as he can but it doesn’t break. He looks around the room for any sign of where he is, but everything is pitch black. He feels panic quickly setting in as he tries to figure out what brought him to this situation. <em>Breathe. Breathe. Think.. What are the last things you remember doing? Let’s see, I was cooking breakfast… and… talking to Tony? No, no, after that, I went and—</em></p>
<p>“Calm down captain,” a familiar voice interrupts his thoughts. “I’m not going to bite…”</p>
<p>Steve gets kidnapped. A lot of talking is involved. Sort of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Ranting

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to say that my awful OOC writing and my continuous fails at trying to be funny/dramatic/deep may damage your brain in some way or another. Possibly forever. I apologize in advance for everything.
> 
> Somehow, I had the most "brilliant" idea of submitting an Avengers fanfic as my English assignment. Here's the result.

Steve jerks awake at the prodding sensation at his head. His hands are tied behind him by some kind of thick rope; he pulls at it as hard as he can but it doesn’t break. He looks around the room for any sign of where he is, but everything is pitch black. He feels panic quickly setting in as he tries to figure out what brought him to this situation. _Breathe. Breathe. Think.. What are the last things you remember doing? Let’s see, I was cooking breakfast… and… talking to Tony? No, no, after that, I went and—_

“Calm down captain,” a familiar voice interrupts his thoughts. “I’m not going to bite…”

Suddenly, bright light fills the room and momentarily blinds him. He waits until his eyes adjust to the lack of darkness and awkwardly cranes his neck toward the source of the voice.

“Loki,” he breathes, staring at the raven-haired man crouching in front of him. He’s not wearing his usual armor, opting instead for a simple suit. Steve snatches the opportunity to observe his surroundings, trying to piece together his location, but all he sees are white walls.

“Don’t bother,” the enemy says, baring his teeth in imitation of a grin. “This place is magic. Nobody can find you here.”

Steve continues his staring contest with him as cold sweat drips down his face. “What do you want?” the blond asks, trying to regain his composure.

Loki gives him a dismissive look and rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything. He stands up and magicks a chair out of thin air. Sitting down and crossing his legs, he taps against the chair without rhythm, staring at nothing on the white wall. Awkward silence fills the room.

Steve clears his throat as he tries to sit up. Ropes bind his feet, probably with magic, so he doesn’t bother to tear them apart. His head is throbbing and he feels a migraine coming, so it’s safe to assume Loki must have knocked him out cold. “What’s your plan?” he tries again, hoping his “companion” will acknowledge him this time.

Loki returns his gaze to Steve, but it quickly falls back to the wall again. The soldier waits patiently for an answer and gets his reward. “Nothing,” the demigod finally responds, but disappointingly.

“I doubt that,” the prisoner sharply states. “Why have you abducted me? I’m sure you must have something in mind.”

Loki scowls at him and snarls, “ _nothing._ ”

_Odd_ , the blond thinks to himself, _he’s not his usual condescendingly boastful self today._

“Stop lying,” Steve demands. “Release me, or at least tell me the reason you kidnapped me.” Loki ignores him, which irritates him more than anything. His head is really starting to hurt now. “What’s wrong? ‘Silver tongue turned to lead’? That’s what Tho—“

Loki stands from where he just disconnected Steve from consciousness. Looking at the limp body, he frowns. “Noisy human.”

\--

“Where is my brother?! I’ve waited long enough, man of iron, you said I would get answers!”

“Look big guy, calm down, we’re still trying to find out if there’s anything wrong with Stevie here, but magic isn’t really my forte okay? Unless you want to try your luck.”

“My brother is powerful wielder of magic. Perhaps your machinery cannot solve the questions you’ve put forth.”

“Er, no duh. That’s what I was saying. Thank you captain Obvious.”

“You are most welcome, friend, but the captain is unconscious right now.”

“…”

“Unn,” Steve awakes to what distantly sounds like Tony and Thor arguing with each other. He has a massive headache, and his eyes are so hazy he can barely make out the two figures beside him. “What…? Where am I?”

“Steve,” Tony smiles and heaves out a relieved sigh, patting the patient’s cheeks in a mock-doctor fashion. “You okay man? You’re back in HQ right now, but we found you like a dead corpse outside the usual coffee shop and you were really freaking people out there; they thought America would have had to say au revoir to its beloved poster boy.” Tony mumbles with his usual motor mouth and he grins, but his face seems a bit paler than Steve remembers.

“Anyway, any whereabouts? Did Loki tell you anything? Plans? Actions? Any word from O great lord of darkness and mischief?” the smaller man bombards him with questions he knows not the answers to, and his head starts to throb again. He glances at the tall blond out of the corner of his eyes, and Thor beams an uneasy smile at him.

“S-slow down Tony,” Steve stutters, his throat dry. “I don’t know; he didn’t tell me anything.” He gratefully accepts the glass of water Tony hands him and downs it in a second. He grimaces, “he might have done something to me while I was out.”

Tony slaps his shoulder a few times and grins at him, “Don’t worry cap. I’ll just need to run a few tests on you and you’ll be released from this dangerously yawn-inducing cell soon enough. Seriously, they must have hired the most boring architect in the world. At least put a mini statue of me in the corner, it’s so plain.”

Steve nods nonchalantly along Tony’s ranting and glimpses at Thor, standing awkwardly at their side. The thunderer looks grieved, and the smile he wears seems forced. _He’s probably upset about his brother_ , Steve thinks, _poor guy._

\--

Thursday was the next time it happened.

It’s been two weeks since his last encounter with the mad god, and both Tony and Bruce are quick to assure him that nothing’s wrong with him, except for the mild concussion, so he puts it behind him as he always does.

Thursday is his unofficial day off, when he’s not surrounded with paperwork or missions or the other Avengers to deal with because everybody is elsewhere doing their own thing. He practically has the whole building to himself, except for a few security guards outside.

So it’s maybe not that surprising that he once again finds himself tied up, lying on the floor in a blank white room with a potentially insane Asgardian standing in front of him.

“You want to talk?” Loki starts first this time, his face an emotionless mask but his voice a bit too angry. “I’ll talk.”

_What_ , is what Steve wants to ask, but he doesn’t get much time to open his mouth before Loki interrupts him.

“I had a dream once,” he begins, breaking eye contact and again looking at the blank wall. “You would think it was to be king. Maybe it was, a very long time ago, but I never wanted the throne.” He takes a small breath and looks down at the ground, something like nostalgia coloring his eyes. “I only ever wanted to be your equal.”

“Me?” Steve questions, cocking one eyebrow. Loki rolls his eyes at him.

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Then… Thor?” Steve tries again, but Loki goes back to pretending he didn’t hear anything.

“When I was little,” he sighs. “The All-father told us both, ‘one day, you will take over me, and rule this kingdom.’ Back then… well, I was much too young and naïve, to even think that the throne was ever within my reach.

‘I’ll surely be king!’ Thor would have yelled stupidly, the same way he still does.

‘I’m going to be king too,’ I would have followed suit, but more calmly than the idiot beside me could ever manage.

“Odin often gave us long lectures on what it meant to become king and take care of the whole of Asgard. ‘Aye, t’is a hard burden to be ruler, but you are both my sons,’” Loki spits the word with so much hate, Steve almost winces. “’And I believe in you equally. However, in the end,’ this he always said. ‘Only one of you can succeed me.’

“I used to believe that I had the chance, but of course, everything was a simply a fantasy I foolishly created for myself. I could never have beaten Thor. Everything and everyone revolved around him. The thunderer, the golden prince of Asgard, the mighty Thor. What was I? His pathetic shadow?

“Thor was always first,” Loki spat angrily, his previous composure completely vanished. Steve feels like the room suddenly got a lot hotter, as if it is following the rage of its creator. “No matter how stupid he was, or whatever wrongs he committed, the people were always in his favor. It was always Loki who the court blamed, who the people distrusted, who the servants whispered about at night.”

Perhaps it is because of his pounding headache that prevents Steve from making any decent judgment, and he blurts in spite of himself, “wasn’t it usually your fault anyway?”

If looks could kill, Steve would be dead right there.

“No.” Loki bares his teeth, and before he knows it, the soldier blacks out once again.

\--

“Steve? Are you awake?” he hears someone ask calmly, and he gives a weak nod in response. “Oh, that’s good then. How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” the blond groans, forcing his eyes open and immediately regretting it; the lights were way too bright. “And hungry. Where am I?”

“You’re back in my lab,” the voice he had been conversing with belonged to Bruce. The doctor gives him a grim smile and adds, “care to tell me what happened?”

_I'd be more than happy to_ , Steve thinks, _if I could make sense of any of it myself._

“Loki kidnapped me again,” the patient murmurs, a bit embarrassed. “He, um, ‘talked’. Sort of.”

“Sort of?” Bruce raised a curious eyebrow at him.

“He started telling me about his past. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea either.”

“What did he say?”

“Something about always being second to Thor,” Steve runs a hand through his hair in frustration. “I can’t remember much, my headache was awful.”

“Did he do anything to you? With his magic?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Well, you seem fine,” Bruce tries to reassure him, but his tone isn’t very convincing. He crosses the room to pick up a small notepad and scribbles something down. “If you don’t mind,” he says, opening a small supply kit. “I’m going to have to do a check up on you, like what Stark did the other day. Just to make sure.”

Steve slumps back against his bed and heaves a long sigh, “Do what you must.”

_It’s going to be a long day_ , he thinks.

\--

Steve stays in the lab for the next few days or so. He insists that he’s fine, but Tony is being stubborn and won’t let him leave until he finds something wrong with the blond. Bruce just kind of goes along with it.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Tony huffs, pacing around the room as Bruce reads off the results from the latest test conducted. “He abducted you twice. Twice! And he hasn’t done anything to you! Can he even call himself a villain? Even I’m disappointed.”

“He hasn’t done anything to me, Tony,” Steve repeats for the hundredth time. “Now can you please let me leave…?”

Tony looks scandalized at the suggestion, but Bruce interrupts him before he can say anything, “I think you should listen to him. All the tests say he’s in perfectly normal condition, and it’s not exactly best to keep Captain America locked in a room all day, away from all his important duties.”

“But—”

“I think you should leave now,” the doctor continues, unhooking all the wires connected to Steve’s body. “Nothing seems wrong. The best thing you can do now is get some fresh air.” He smiles gently at Steve and pats his shoulder. “Don’t worry; I’ll take care of Tony.”

“I’m not a child.”

“Of course, Tony.”

As soon as Steve clumsily steps out of the room, he bumps right into the very person he’s been hearing about all this time. “Sorry,” he mutters, rubbing his nose.

“All is well, my friend,” Thor gives him a blinding grin and slaps his back a little too hard. “How fare you?”

“Okay, I guess. You?”

“Aye, I am well,” the demigod answers, following him as Steve walks steadily to the kitchen. His stomach is killing him. “Did…” the soldier hears the hesitation in his voice and pauses in his track for a brief moment, before resuming his journey. “Did my brother do anything…?”

“He talked,” Steve responds curtly. “About you, actually.”

Thor widens his eyes almost comically, obvious surprise and joy spreading across his face, before he seems to realize something, and his expression becomes much more somber. He bows his head slightly, and speaks in the smallest volume Steve has ever heard from him (which isn’t saying much, but still), “What did he say?”

Steve mentally debates with himself whether to tell the other man the truth or not, but looking at his pained yet hopeful expression, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he says, almost without thinking, “he misses you.”

Thor shoots his head up immediately and his whole face lights up, his jaw dropping. “Is that true?” he demands eagerly, like a child asking for candy.

“Yes,” Steve lies awkwardly, averting his eyes so that he doesn’t have to face the other Avenger. Before long, they reach the kitchen, and the soldier goes for the fridge, opening it and checking its content. “He, um… he says he holds a grudge against you for what you did to him in the past, but he still misses you… or something.”

Steve is incredibly thankful that Thor is as bad at spotting a lie as Loki is at telling the truth.

He grabs a leftover shake and gives it a sip before turning around to look at his companion. He almost chokes on his drink when he sees that there are tears around the edges of Thor’s eyes, and he looks like he is about to cry a river. Or two.

“I am in your debt, Steven!” he booms, closing their distance in incredible speed and tackles Steve in a tight bear hug. Steve very awkwardly pats the bigger man’s back and silently hopes he lets go soon.

Unfortunately, the Aesir are a very physically intimate people.

“How can I repay you?” Thor asks, sniffing.

“You don’t need to…” Steve replies, a bit uncomfortable with their position. “Well, you can start by letting me finish my drink.”

At that, Thor thankfully lets go of him. “Ah, of course. I apologize. You must be thirsted after being kept in that chamber for so long,” he beams a cheery smile at Steve and pulls out a box of Pop-tarts in the cupboard. “Come, we shall break fast together.”

\--

That night, as he is retiring to his room, he stops dead in his track at the sight of an unwelcomed visitor, shamelessly lying on his bed and looking through his work files.

“Loki,” Steve says, feeling a slight twinge of panic. “Why are you here?”

“Bored,” Loki replies, not entirely untrue, but Steve doubts that’s the whole reason he’s decided to sneak through SHIELD’s maximum security and into Steve’s room of all things.

The blond moves toward the bed and confiscates the documents from Loki, who scowls at him but doesn’t do anything else in protest. “Your brother's just upstairs,” Steve offers the information freely, although he’s fairly certain Loki knew that already.

Loki decides to play coy. “Oh,” he says simply, nodding his head once. Steve sighs as he crosses the room to sit on the sofa, seeing as his very very comfortable bed is now occupied. He wonders why nobody has bothered coming here to arrest the villain yet. Aren’t there security cameras all over this building?

“I put an illusion over them,” Loki answers. “They should only see the captain slumbering away along with the sounds of his snoring.”

“I don’t snore,” Steve adds, too tired to really fight back (he vaguely hears Loki muttering _you do_ , which disturbs him a lot less than it should) He doesn’t have one clue why Loki’s doing what he’s doing, but he doesn’t seem like he has any intention of harming the Avenger any time soon, so Steve will take what he can. “Why did you kidnap me?” Steve prods, a bit more serious.

At first, his companion seems conflicted about whether or not to answer, which was more of a response than Steve expected. Reluctantly, he mutters, “I was told that I should talk about my ‘problems’… with whoever is involved.”

Steve raises his eyebrows in surprise. “By whom?” he questions, which doesn’t illicit him any form of reply. He asks again, “and I’m not exactly ‘involved’. Shouldn’t you talk out your issues with your brother? Why me?”

“He’s not my brother,” Loki bites, venom dripping at the tip of his tongue.

“You’re his brother though,” Steve regrets saying. In a heartbeat, Loki is in front of him, trailing a sharp dagger dangerously along his neck, then up his jaw line and stopping at his lips.

“Say another word about it,” Loki threatens, eyes narrowed and angry. “And I’ll personally give you your tongue as a present from the gods.”

Sensing danger, Steve goes into fight mode. He ducks down and swiftly round-kicks his leg, but instead of hitting and knocking his enemy over, there is only a smoke of colours as Loki vanishes right before his eyes. “Damn,” he curses under his breath.

He looks around the room for any clue of Loki, but finds none. A few minutes later, someone knocks on his door.

“Hey cap, you cool? I saw you suddenly started fighting magic ninjas and I thought I’d come over to join in,” Tony pops in casually, although his tone does hint a bit of suspicion.

“Loki was just here,” Steve flops down on his bed and puts an arm over his eyes.

“What? No way, my cameras didn’t detect anything at all,” Tony argues. He gets kind of defensive about his inventions.

“It was just a trick,” Steve murmurs, feeling sleep quickly creeping up on him.

“I’ll have to include ‘detecting magical illusion’ as one of the cameras’ functions then,”

“Go away Tony, I’m sleeping.”

“Fine fine,” he grumbles, heading for the door. “But I’ll have to confiscate your room for tomorrow.”

_Suit yourself_ , Steve thinks, drifting off into slumber.

\--

Apparently, telling Tony about an insane demigod breaking into their home base wasn’t such a good idea, which is why Steve is currently sitting in front of a furious Fury, who looks like he’s been getting up on the wrong side of the bed for 10 years straight.

“Captain America,” he announces sternly. “You are hereby forbidden to leave the permitted area only unless under an important mission.”

“I’m as vulnerable here as I am outside,” Steve retorts. “Last time, Loki broke into my room without a trace.”

“We can’t take any chances,” Fury gives him a glare, which successfully manages to end the discussion for good. Steve slumps his back slightly and heaves a sigh as he walks out in to the hall, only to be greeted with Natasha.

“What’s the verdict?” she asks smoothly.

“House arrest,” he replies, shaking his head. “Although, in my opinion, Loki can just take me again when he feels like it.” At the raised eyebrow directed at him, he blushes the tiniest bit and fumbles, “I mean, not in that way.”

Natasha gives him a calculating look and nothing else. They walk in silence for a while before she gets a call on her phone, which she replies with nothing more than a ‘yes’ at the end, and she waves him goodbye. “He’s taken a liking to you,” she concludes matter-of-factly, and runs off before he can ask her exactly what she means.

\--

By Fury’s orders, he stays in most of the times, except for on the odd mission every now and then. Tony is keen to giving him pitying looks, but the others doesn’t give really give it any mind. Steve can still take to the gym when he feels like releasing all the tension in his body, so he’ll make do with it for now.

In fact, the stop-Loki-from-kidnapping-Steve-by-keeping-him-locked-in plan almost seems to be working.

Except, it’s not.

He wakes up again in an empty white room, his feet tied but oddly enough, his hands are free. The god of mischief stands in front of him, face schooled into a mask of indifference.

“Stop lazing around all day,” Loki scolds him, which is on its own, strange on a whole new level.

“I can’t,” Steve replies. “They think you’ll abduct me again if I step foot out.”

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Loki smirks. “Even a first time wizard can pull it off; you have no magical protection whatsoever.”

Steve has the sense to almost feel embarrassed at the fact, before he catches himself in time. He clears his throat and goes for the obvious, “Is that why you choose me?”

Loki pauses for a split second before answering nonchalantly, “you’re the least annoying.”

“Oh.”

A short silence spans between them, before Loki starts pacing back and forth, filling the room with sounds of his footsteps.

“As we grew,” Loki suddenly begins again, picking up where he left off last time. “The differences between us started to show more and more clearly. I had a natural knack for magic and spells, while Thor always was an big oaf who knew no more than fighting and violence. But that was what made people love him so much. Asgard was a place where physical combat was how you proved yourself a man, and magic was how you proved yourself a coward.

“He used to be different,” Loki mourns. “Before the rest of them made him even more of a moron than he already was. We used to travel together sometimes, and I would shield us from the eyes of the hunt, while he did the dirtier work and slain it. It was one of the few ways we still worked as brothers even as our differences separated us.

“That is, until one day, in front of his friends, he dared to _humiliate_ me. ‘No more,’ he’d said, as the scum behind him snickered unkindly. ‘I have these fine warriors to battle with now, so until you learn more than just your tricks, I suggest you stay home, brother.’

“I snuck along with them anyway, and conjured fake beasts to run them around in circles, so that they return shamed without felling anything. From then on, nobody ever said anything to me directly, but there were always whispers behind my back. Prince Loki was a feared thing, a dangerous person to trust, but Thor was always the better, brighter one. He never said it out loud, but he always thought that I was inferior. I could never be equal to him if all I had were my ‘silly tricks.’

“I guess somewhere along the way,” Loki sighs, one hand playing idly with his long raven locks. “I started believing it.”

“Do you still?” Steve wonders out loud.

Loki looks as him incredulously, as if the answer was as obvious as day, but Steve honestly has no idea.

“Don’t be so stubborn.” That earns him yet another death glare. “You should talk to Thor,” he urges. “He must be sorry for what he did to you.”

“I know,” Loki says calmly.

“So why don’t you?”

“Child,” he sighs, resigned. “It is not that simple. We’ve spent thousands of years with each other, thousands of years as I had to endure the constant distrust and dirty looks of his friends, all of which he let happen without a single intervention. I had to tolerate his looking down on me, as if I was some pitiful creature just because of my magic.

“And of course,” he smiles almost sadly. “It was foolish to think that the All-father could ever love me as much as he loved Thor. I am jotun. Of all things, I am the one thing that I despise the most.” He stretches out his hand, and watches in half bile, half fascination as it slowly turns to an icy blue. He grins without any hint of joy and whispers, “fate is a cruel mistress…

“I cannot stand to face him. He looks upon me with pity as a man would look upon a stray pup. I do not wish to see him and his self-righteousness, as if he knows exactly what I might be feel, and that a simple apology can fix everything that is wrong with me.”

“He doesn’t look at you with pity,” Steve blurts, feeling the need to defend his friend. Loki gives him a curious look and waves his hand dismissively.

“You are young yet, you do not understand,” he says, as he approaches Steve. “It is enough for today. You will be returned.” He raises both his hands and closes his eyes as he chants some form of spell. Green magic spills out of Loki’s hands as Steve feels a force whirling around him, engulfing him in its power. Before he knows it, Steve is back in his room, feet untied, and strangely exhausted.

He collapses on his bed and mutters to himself, “why do I have to be the middle man?”


End file.
